The Beaumont Health System has announced a $5 million gift from Danialle and Peter Karmanos, Jr. to expand access to safe, natural birthing alternatives in metropolitan Detroit.

The gift will be used to establish the Karmanos Center for Natural Birth and the Danialle & Peter Karmanos, Jr. Birth Center at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. The 3,200-square-foot natural birthing center will include four deluxe birthing suites and a walking path for women in labor, a dedicated nursing station, a waiting area for families, and a rooftop garden. The gift also will be used to fund training for medical professionals, prenatal and community education, and to create an endowment that supports research on the benefits of natural birthing for mothers and infants.

The center will be "one-of-a-kind in its scale, its attention to detail, and its focus on creating a welcoming, aesthetically pleasing environment, with nurses and physicians trained in the art of natural childbirth, for the benefit of a laboring woman and her family," said Ray Bahado-Singh, chair of obstetrics-gynecology at Beaumont Health System. "It recognizes the voices of many women seeking a natural, holistic approach to labor that, in select women, has led to lower rates of medical interventions and C-section deliveries and faster recovery rates."

Peter Karmanos, Jr., the retired CEO of Compuware Corporation and owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, Plymouth Whalers, and Florida Everblades hockey franchises, created the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in 1995 in honor of his first wife, who died of breast cancer. Danialle Karmanos founded Danialle Karmanos' Work It Out, a nonprofit organization that uses a holistic and yoga-based approach to fighting childhood obesity in Detroit's poorest neighborhoods. "We recognize that natural birth isn't for everyone," said Ms. Karmanos. "But for those who are interested, our vision is to create a first-class environment for more women to have the option of a healthy, safe, natural birth experience."